Kimiko (1937)

April 13, 1937

THE SCREEN; At the Filmarte

By FRANK S. NUGENT

Published: April 13, 1937

Maintaining its reputation as the most interesting little cinema in New York, the Filmarte last night presented the first Japanese talking picture to be shown in this city. "Kimiko," based on Minoru Nakano's novel, "Two Wives," is more to be recommended for its novelty than for its quality. It is a curious hybrid of East and West, with something of the best and worst features of each. It apes the Hollywood technique, but rather crudely, it expresses in stock Western terms, the refreshingly realistic morality of the Orient.

The story, in a lichi nutshell, is that of a man who had deserted his wife and child fifteen years before to elope with a geisha girl. His wife and his daughter, Kimiko, envision him as living in silken ease with a designing hussy. The monthly stipend they receive from him they assume to have been smuggled out without her knowledge. They are convinced the geisha will cling to him as long as his money lasts.

Kimiko elects to seek him out, restore him to her pining mother. But she finds that her father is a poor man, that his geisha mistress—the mother of two of his children—has been sending money to them, that she sacrificed her own daughter's education to Kimiko's. The attempt at reconciliation fails. Kimiko, compelled to the realization that her father and mother are incompatible, tearfully bids him go his way.

The picture is lethargic of pace, repetitive and awkwardly contrived. It has a distressing habit of stumbling over the threshold of each new scene; its fadeouts and dissolves are awkwardly amateur. Yet it has a certain sturdy honesty in the resolution of its problem and the performances are expert. There is an abundance of superposed English dialogue titles to explain the action. They attest, too, to the static quality of the piece. "Kimiko" is probably the least of the Filmarte's programs; but it is interesting none the less.